Gillian Hutchinson - Sir John Franklins Erebus and Terror Expedition

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First published 2017

National Maritime Museum, 2017

Gillian Hutchinson has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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ISBN: 978-1-4729-4869-4 (PB)
ISBN: 978-1-4729-4871-7 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-4729-4870-0 (ePDF)

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In association with Royal Museums Greenwich, the group name for the National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory Greenwich, Queens House and Cutty Sark.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Sir John Franklin set out with HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in 1845 on a voyage to find the North-West Passage. The ships disappeared into the Arctic, never to be seen again until their wrecks were discovered in 2014 and 2016.

This brief guide fills in the background to Franklins expedition and describes the attempts that have been made to find survivors and discover what happened. Mystery still remains, however. Will examination of the shipwrecks solve it?

FOREWORD

The 1845 expedition to the Arctic, commanded by Sir John Franklin, was the largest, best-equipped expedition that Britain ever sent north, yet it ended in tragedy. Back home, the deaths of its 129 men devastated families. The disaster was writ large upon the Victorian imagination, represented in art, theatre and music. Exactly what happened is still subject to speculation.

The objects that Franklin searchers brought back were displayed in the Painted Hall in Greenwich from the 1850s. They were literally brought over the road when the National Maritime Museum opened in 1937 and have been important to the Museum ever since. We are grateful to Greenwich Hospital, the Gell Muniment Trustees, the descendants of Leopold McClintock and others for the things that they have entrusted to us over time. All these objects remain enigmatic witnesses to the final days of Franklin and his crew.

The finds of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror are some of the most exciting maritime archaeological discoveries of recent years. Those who cooperated so successfully in locating them are to be congratulated. We are grateful to Parks Canada for lending some of the material recovered from the wrecks, and to the Government of Nunavut for allowing them to travel back to Britain for the first time, for display in the first major exhibition since the ships discovery, Death in the Ice: The Shocking Story of Franklins Expedition, at the National Maritime Museum from 14 July 2017 to 5 January 2018. Much of the material in this book will also go on display in the National Maritime Museums new Polar Worlds gallery from 2018 onwards. Now, tantalisingly, the possibility of further explanation for the crews deaths exists.

It has been an enormous pleasure to work in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of History, sharing mutual expertise and collections to produce the Death in the Ice exhibition. The Canadian High Commission in London has also been a stalwart source of help. As Canada celebrates the 150th anniversary of its Confederation, we are delighted, through the exhibition, to be able to demonstrate the strong ties between our two nations, both past and present.

Dr Kevin Fewster AM

Director, Royal Museums Greenwich

CHAPTER 1

THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

The aim of Sir John Franklins Erebus and Terror expedition was to find a North-West Passage a sailing route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific across the top of North America. By the early nineteenth century the British Navy had explored nearly all the oceans of the world and the discovery of a North-West Passage was one of the greatest challenges that still remained.